Some days, it just doesn't pay to chew through the restraints...

Earlier this week, I looked ahead on the repair schedule. Uhhh, wait a minute, I'm the only bicycle mechanic working on Friday and there's HOW MANY tune-ups scheduled?!

"Oh, don't worry... the guy with the three tune-up appointments will probably bring in just one. Or maybe none at all."

Oh. So we've held about six hours worth of labor time for someone who may not even come in. And if he does bring in three tune-ups, there's no way I can possibly get everything done. Brilliant. No wonder I haven't gotten a raise for more than a year, if we're running the business this way.

So I get there early to do the one Friday repair that's actually on-site, instead of a drop-off by appointment. Two of the appointments show up eventually, but not the guy who'd had us hold three time slots for him. Well, at least I don't have to attempt the impossible...


Then the first bomb drops. To make a long story short, the sales guys mistakenly gave one guy's bike to another guy. We're talking $3000+ bikes here.

They call up the one guy and try to convince him that he has some other guy's bike and we need it back. I was completely out of the picture, but still embarrassed. I can only imagine what these customers must think of us... "honey, did you go pick up my bike on the way home?" "No dear, they gave it away to a complete stranger. But they're trying to get it back."

A while later, I hear myself being paged around 4:30PM. It's the guy with the Klein Palomino that ended up getting $650 worth of work, including an overhaul of the rear suspension pivots and the Maverick forks. It turns out the sales guys had not listened carefully to the customer when booking the repair, and now he's wasted about $200 because my supposed "teammates" slated it for the rear-suspension rebuild when all he wanted was to have the rear shock snugged up in the rear triangle. Good job, guys.

This stuff keeps happening. The weird part is that my co-workers aren't newbies. They shouldn't need much guidance, not to mention outright hand-holding. Maybe I can just go be a janitor or something :sigh:

Anyway, thanks for viewing my rant :wave:

I worked for two years in a taxi meter shop which was the exact same way. Mistakes galore, mainly because some of the employees just didn't listen to directions. We got our share of calls from people who received the wrong meter back. And let's not forgot the "repairs" which weren't. One particular model meter was so unreliable that it wasn't uncommon to see the same customer 5 days in a row with the same problem. Not the tech's fault of course as he didn't design it, but embarrassing nonetheless. All concerned were quite happy when that POS meter was finally pulled from service for good.

Working for a mechanical contractor it was commonplace for me to have the ductwork loaded on the truck in the wrong order. My boss in Omaha would say put X hospital in the nose followed by Z building etc. But since the ductwork was made in Des Moines by the same mechanical contractor they had different idea's on how to load it. Their only concern was making all the duct "fit", not the order. So many times the truck was loaded backwards from what I was told when I left Omaha. And it's always the "dumb" truck drivers fault. But they wanted me to stay with the original order, so unload the back of the truck, take off the stuff in front and then reload it back up. All in the same amount of time of course. Insane I tell you. Then they made sure to tell you that drivers were a dime a dozen and you could be out the door at any time. All this after you busted your *** to get it done. No good job today, nothing. This happened many times. All for $13 an hour and no benefits, only job availible. Nutty man. !@#$%^&*()_!

Not really mechanical, but at a company I used to work for, there was a machine that would regularly spew about 20-50 gallons of KMnO4 and NaOH all over the floor. There was another machine using Ferric acid that was made of a plastic Ferric acid eats through. That spilt a couple hundred gallons, I guess. (it was a bit before my time there)

Guess who they blamed for it? The designers? The engineers? Pfft! Not a chance! It was the peon operators that got blamed, never mind the fact there was nothing that they could do about it.

Oh, and guess who had to clean it up...
Was it the trained chemical handlers with the proper protective gear? Nope, it was the guy who knew KMnO4 as "purple goop" with a mop and a shop vac.

Why don't you do the * mechanicBgone * thing ..............

And go work in a computer repair shop ....... or get on the *Geek Squad* ....... ?


You seem to be knowledgeable in computer stuff .



(or have you already tried that and prefer bikes ?)
.

Well, in keeping with the thread title...

I work at a site with more than one security company in place. We're expected to help each other out. (A nice way of saying that the company I work for is at the bottom of the totem pole).

For several days in a row, I'd get called to temporarily suspend my patrol; in order to secure the same broken doors. Okay, I can understand the first time it happens. Door with an alarm on it doesn't close properly, alarm goes off at the security desk, security officer contacts me to secure the door, I find it's broken or doesn't close properly, and report it to the other security officer.

Now that "genius" never bothers to properly report the issue. Actually, none of them do. So for several days, I get sent to secure the same damn broken doors by various other security officers posted at the desk. You'd think that after awhile, the officer at the desk would check out the situation on his own... using one of the numerous overhead cameras on the property... before calling me to check if there's a real problem... especially since the officer at the desk can clear a false alarm with the simple press of a button at his station. This BS usually goes on until the door actually gets fixed.

I've gotten to the point where I sarcastically respond, pretending to be surprised that "Oh that broken door hasn't been fixed yet? Okay, I'm on my way. Let me know when you get another false alarm on it."

You should tell them you can't secure it , then go back to your assigned patrol that you left.


If you can't secure it ........... it will get written up to get fixed.

.

TooManyGizmos said:

You should tell them you can't secure it , then go back to your assigned patrol that you left.


If you can't secure it ........... it will get written up to get fixed.

Click to expand...

Tried that a couple of times. A good suggestion. But it only works if your co-workers actually know what they're doing. :shakehead

I slam the broken doors as hard as I can, and then move on; it's just easier that way.

But if you Can't secure it .......... and Don't .......


They will get tired of listening to the alarm buzz

and press the re-set button you spoke of to silence it.

Don't slam the door so hard next time.

.

+

"Some days, it just doesn't pay to chew through the restraints..."

That has to be one of the best titles to a thread yet!


Some days you just have to shake your head at a damn crosswind.

TooManyGizmos said:

Why don't you do the * mechanicBgone * thing ..............

And go work in a computer repair shop ....... or get on the *Geek Squad* ....... ?


You seem to be knowledgeable in computer stuff .



(or have you already tried that and prefer bikes ?)
.

Click to expand...

Between bike-mechanic jobs, I was a systems administrator at a non-profit agency for about five years. The classic all-purpose "computer guy." It suited me perfectly, except the head of the agency's I.T. department was a rabid Microsoft-hating zealot. He was determined to use his position to lash out at anything Microsoft-related, and to heck with the employees and their mission :thumbsdow

So I got all our systems fully documented and labelled for the next guy to take over, and then I quit that job and went back to being a bicycle mechanic. No one wants to hire stupid old bike mechanics into Information Technology jobs these days, so I'm stuck doing this until I die, I guess